The invention relates to belt lock or buckle having a lock holder that is adapted to be mounted on a vehicle part, whereby the lock holder is provided with a hole for the extension therethrough of a fastening means, which is to be connected with the vehicle part, in such a way that the lock holder is rotatably held on the fastening means, and whereby a restoring spring having spirally disposed spring windings is arranged between the vehicle part and the lock holder, wherein the restoring spring biases the lock holder into the rest position of the belt lock, wherein one end of the spring is supported against the lock holder, and the other end is supported against the vehicle part.
A belt lock having the aforementioned features is described in EP 0 854 070 B1. So that the belt lock can move out of its rest position for setting an optimum belt path, the lock holder is rotatably mounted on a fastening bolt for the lock holder via a slot, whereby the slot also permits a translatory movement of the belt lock relative to the fastening means. To restore or reset the belt lock into its rest position, a spiral spring having a first helically embodied spiral portion is provided, the spring windings of which are disposed axially next to one another with the same diameter of the spring windings, and surround the fastening bolt. In addition, a second spiral portion is disposed between the first spiral portion and the end of the spring that is supported on the belt lock. Whereas the first spiral portion of the restoring spring strives for the restoring of the lock holder about its axis of rotation upon rotation of the lock holder about the fastening bolt, the second spiral portion effects the restoring of the lock after its translatory shifting.
The known belt lock has the drawback of a correspondingly large axial overall width of the fastening arrangement for the belt lock; furthermore, the second spiral portion, which is provided due to the translatory restoring of the belt lock, makes the dimensioning and manufacture of the restoring means complicated.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a straightforward restoring spring configuration for a belt lock having the aforementioned general features and to provide an effective restoring or resetting of the lock holder.